Smoothies are a refreshing and tasty drink that became popular in the 60s and 70s — a period when there’s an increased demand for vegetarian, natural, and organic items on restaurant menus. Today, smoothie and juice bars have turned into mainstream beverages for health-conscious individuals.
When you open a smoothie or juice bar business, one of the things you need is a marketing plan. If you want more customers to visit your location and order your products, you’ll need to invest your time, money, and energy into promoting your shop.
Here are a few actionable tips to help you market your business effectively:
Figure Out Your Target Market
You need to determine the target audience of your smoothie shop. A few of the target markets you could consider are health-conscious individuals, millennials who value the convenience and taste of on-the-go beverages and people who value the price of drinks over variety.
If you already have a customer base in mind, find ways to expand that without alienating your existing consumers. An example is to add small-sized smoothies for children and individuals who are currently strapped for cash.
Scout Out Your Competitors
Studying your competition, also known as competitor analysis, is important to the success of your marketing plan. You can use the data you’ve obtained from your scouting to set competitive prices, offer better deals to customers, and get ideas to improve your drink selection.
When looking at your competitors, compare the smoothies or juices they offer to yours. Then, emphasize why your products are better, healthier, and more affordable than the ones offered by your competition.
Pro-tip: When researching your competition, don’t just limit to search to smoothie or juice bars. Consider establishments that serve or offer these beverages, such as dine-in restaurants, health food stores, and grocery chains. Never count these commercial establishments out, as they may have smoothies that have the edge over yours.
Offer Discounts Strategically
The pricing strategy of your smoothie business is instrumental to your profitability and marketing success. The strategy you set should surpass your product sales targets and leave you with a positive reputation. Achieving this goal, however, won’t be easy.
If your location is suitable for providing discounts, think about how you’ll manage these pricing deals both in the short term and long term. Then, formulate a custom discount strategy. Some tactics you could adopt are the following:
- Slash prices on new menu items (for a limited period)
- Offer discount for bulk orders or people ordering smoothies in a group
- Reduce prices on special events, such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and Halloween
- Provide discounts on off-peak hours or slow days to generate traffic
Although the strategies you can implement are endless, you have to consider two things: your business goal and how your discounts will help you achieve that goal.
A word on discounts: Be careful when slashing prices too much or too frequently. These actions may do more harm than good to your bottom line. On top of that, customers could perceive your products as low quality.
Give Away Promotional Products to Regular Buyers
Besides new customers, you need a marketing plan for future regular customers. Once you have loyal customers, thank them for their continuous patronage by giving them a promotional product.
Not sure what products to give to regular buyers? Look at your audience. If the majority of your consumers are families with kids, for instance, you could give away kiddie-related merchandise, such as a Captain America shield toy or a set of Disney pencils.
Promote Your Products Online
Your drinks shop needs an online presence so that customers can find you when they search you on Google or well-known hospitality websites like Zomato. Attracting customers to your business and promoting your smoothies can be difficult if people cannot locate your shop on Google maps. So, take the time to do online marketing for your business.
You could begin by displaying your beverage shop on Instagram. Create a business profile and upload colorful photos of your smoothies. These images will entice potential customers to visit your shop and try out your drinks.
Another suggestion is to create a website for your smoothie shop. A responsive, engaging, and well-designed site built by a professional web developer may be what you need to set yourself apart from the competition. When you’re having your website built, give the web designer pictures of your most visually appealing smoothies together with a compelling product description or copy.
Take note of these ideas when promoting your beverage shop. When promoting your business, you should ideally reach your target market while limiting your marketing expenses.
